Oakland to Cut Less Jobs than Expected

If you have been following our earlier coverage then you know about our earlier coverage of the layoffs that will be needed in the city of Oakland. In case you happened to miss it, here is an excerpt:

“More jobs are going to be cut in the state of California, as the city of Oakland is handing out pink slips to 200 of its employees in order to make their budget work for the 2012 year. The location of all of the job losses is already known. Since the company has until the 1^st of February to dissolve its redevelopment agency, or end up with a budget deficit at the end of the year. While these cuts are coming from the department, if it actually closes the job losses will be much more massive.

While the city is hoping to get some relief from the state legislature, and that this help will prevent the closure of the redevelopment agency. Some people area already speculating that the closure of the redevelopment agency would do more extensive damage to the finances of Oakland and require more layoffs from other departments. Those layoffs are not expected to be minor.

Wondering how the closures could have  such a serious impact on the city’s finances?  Well, here is a little history to help you put this into context. Until last month the state of California was paying cities in the state to help build affordable housing for residents of the state and to help fix blighted areas of the state. The state-subsidized redevelopment program was cut short by a California Supreme Court ruling that was made last month.

That ruling basically eliminated the program, cutting down the funding to cities sharply, and forcing them all to reconfigure their budgets. Oakland has been particularly hard hit by this change, because the city has about half of its area designated at redevelopment zones. The funding from those designations was being used to help pay for the salary of a number of staffers who work for the city.”

Well it looks like the city is hoping to cut back at least a few of those job losses, and some positions are going to be saved, thanks to the swift action of the city.  The number of jobs that needed to be let go was estimated to be as high as $400, is not looking to be about 105 jobs to be lost. While this is still not good news, and still qualifies as a mass layoff action, it is a significantly lower job loss than there could have been.

While the exacts are not being released, the city has been able to save a lot of money by reorganizing the departments in order to save cash. The proposal that will reorganize will give the city some reduction in services, such as the lowering of hours at recreation centers, and less funding for the Oakland Zoo, and these changes may result in some other job cuts, though no information has been given about that at this time.